Robin Hood | Thief of Skandia

Chapter 24

Song: Layla by Eric Clapton

It was a game of cat and mouse. The smaller group of Temujai were pretending to retreat, all the while managing to stay engaged with the leading elements of the pursuing Skandians. For their part, they were simulating a wild and undisciplined pursuit, and getting further and further from their own lines. And all the while, the first Temujai force were circling back to fall on the exposed Skandians.

There was only one more element in the game, which was unknown to the Temujai leaders. Before dawn, Robin had directed a hundred Skandian axemen to take up positions in the fringe of the wooded slope bordering the valley. Concealed in hastily dug shallow trenches and behind fallen logs, they waited now for the signal that would tell them to make a surprise attack on the Temujai who were planning to surprise their comrades.

'Signal One,' Halt said quietly looking at Robin who nodded in succession, and the ram's horn sounded a single, extended note that echoed across the valley.

Instantly, the pursuing Skandians, strung out in a long line behind the retreating Temujai riders, broke contact with the enemy and ran to form a defensive circle, their round shields forming an impenetrable wall. They were none too soon, as the second wave of Temujai horsemen was nearly upon them. As the eastern riders swept in, they were surprised to find an enemy already in a defensive formation and obviously awaiting them. The charge broke against the shield wall and another seething, struggling skirmish formed, with the hundred Skandians defending desperately against at least five times their number of horsemen.

Robin watched the well-rehearsed, co-ordinated movement of the Skandians as they formed their shield wall. And then the ram's horn rang out again, this time sounding three short, staccato notes that seemed to punch the air.

There was a roar from the main Skandian ranks as a group of foot soldiers broke from the cover of the trees and ran to fall upon the encircling riders from the rear. The Skandian battleaxes took a terrible toll of the surprised Temujai, who found themselves suddenly and unexpectedly caught between the hammer of the new attacking force and the anvil of the shield wall. Surprised and confused, and with the momentum of their charge long since spent, the horsemen were easy marks for the savage northerners.

The silver notes of the bugle spilled over the battlefield, cutting through the consciousness of the highly disciplined Temujai cavalry. This time, as they withdrew, they made no pretence of staying in contact with the Skandians. Their rapid disengagement showed how false their previous feigned retreat had been. In a matter of a few minutes, the riders were streaming back towards their own lines.

For a moment, it looked as if discipline and reason had forsaken the Skandians. Robin realised that, in the heat of the moment, they were on the verge of pursuing the retreating Temujai back to their own lines – and to certain death for the Skandians. Turning to Ragank she told him to call them back. Without wasting a second he quickly jumped up on the breastworks and bellowed, in his loudest storm-quelling voice: 'Kormak! Back here! Now!'

There was no need for the ram's horn to reinforce the order. The Oberjarl's voice carried clearly to the Skandians and, as one, they ran for the shelter of the fortifications. Realising too late what was happening, some of the Temujai sheathed their sabres and turned back to send a volley of arrows sailing after the Skandians.

But it was too little and too late. Apart from a few minor flesh wounds, there were no injuries. So far, things had gone pretty well as Halt had predicted. But they didn't think the Temujai wouldn't be trying that particular trick again.

'Now what?' said Ragnak irritably, as he watched the Temujai cavalry forming into groups.

Robin watched too, her eyes narrowed. 'Now, I think, it's the end of the opening gambits.'

Halt nodded, 'Now they're going to hit us in earnest.' He pointed with his bow, sweeping it along the line of mounted horsemen facing them. 'They'll fight in their Ulans, sixty men in each unit, hitting us all along the line and wheeling away before we can respond. The idea is to pick off as many of our men with arrows before launching a concentrated attack at a selected spot.'

'Which is where?' Erak asked. This tactical talk was making him increasingly irritable. All he wanted was a dozen or so Temujai within reach of his axe. Now it appeared he would have to continue waiting for that eventuality. Robin was also eager to slice up some Temujai- they were after all responsible for the trauma at Vanaheim.

Halt turned to the signaller with the horn.

'Give the "ready" call for the archers,' he said.

As the man blew a series of long short, long short notes. Robin replied to Erak's question: 'Wherever their general decides they've created a weakness in our line.' She huffed.

'So what do we do while we're waiting for him to make up his mind?' Ragnak asked irritably.

Halt grinned to himself. Patience certainly wasn't high on the Skandian list of virtues, he thought. 'We surprise them with our own archers,' he said. 'And we try to kill as many of them as we can before they become used to the fact that someone's shooting back at them.'

The assembled troops of horsemen began to move now, cantering slowly at first, then at increasing speed. Robin could see this time that each man was armed with a bow.

They thundered towards the Skandian line – not in one extended line as they had before, but in a dozen separate groups. Then, a hundred metres from the Skandians, each group wheeled, so they were heading in a dozen different directions, and sending volley after volley of arrows arcing up and over the Skandian lines.

Robin saw Will's archers fire back volley after volley, causing panic and death in the Temujai lines. She grinned as another volley hissed away at the tangle of men and horses. They had the range and the direction now and the Temujai troop was stalled, caught in the one spot, losing their most valuable protection, their mobility.